Slow Win7 WU

gistfile1.txt

From a fresh installed Windows 7 system, WU can take hours to deleiver the first list of updates. Some observations:

* If I use offlinewucheck (https://gist.github.com/bklockwood/716d9f582dd78a9e6e9e) on a VM, the download part (wsusscn2.cab) takes less 
  than a minute; local processing takes ~30 minutes. 
* Others report hours. One person reported 23 hours, on an i7 with SSD and 12GB of RAM!
* Unpacking wsusscn2.cab requires a fair amount of crypto (sig checks) and produces THOUSANDS of files.
* I have hazy memory of it overwhelming 2GB systems. Never completes at all; produces 'low virtual memory' errors.
* A system with most updates applied completes the task quickly.

Experiments to run:

* Time an offlineWUcheck run, install more updates, time another. repeat until the number goes way down. 
  What was the LAST update applied?
* Could it be related to drivers? If we restrict the search to software only, is the time reduced?
* What about the reverse ... restrict to drivers only?
* Impact of pagefile settings?
* shut off wu service?
* sepeck's suggestions, http://goo.gl/8O8wol
* http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/What-is-the-System-Update-Readiness-Tool